‘A Threat to Our Democracy’ – Trump Administration Shutters Counter-Foreign-Disinformation Center

As European countries scramble to beef up their protections against Russian interference in their elections and political discourse, the administration of US President Donald Trump has continued on an opposite course by eliminating a government agency that tracked foreign disinformation.

On Wednesday, the administration shut down the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub, previously known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), hailing the move as a way to combat what they perceive as censorship of conservative voices.

In a statement on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the unit, saying it was the responsibility of government officials to “preserve and protect the freedom for Americans to exercise their free speech.”

“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said. “That ends today.”

AFP reported this week that the Trump-loyal majority in US Congress in December failed to extend the agency’s funding, following years of Republican allegations that it censored conservative views.

Earlier this week, an administration memo appeared that outlined plans to slash half of the State Department’s budget and eliminate several other agencies, including the National Endowment for Democracy, whose goal, among others, is to hedge the global influence of autocrats such as Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

Other Topics of Interest

European Intelligence Warns of Aggressive Russian Spying to Steal Western Technology

Senior European intelligence officials from Sweden and Finland have warned that Russia’s intelligence agencies have grown far more aggressive and risk-tolerant in their efforts to steal Western technology and defense secrets. Driven by the tightening squeeze of international sanctions and wartime industrial strain, Moscow’s agents are actively targeting high-end machinery and advanced weapons research – such as Sweden’s Gripen fighter jet – and dual-use technologies like quantum, space, and marine systems.

The Trump administration’s moves come at a time when many European nations are putting even more safeguards in place to protect against Russian propaganda and disinformation, and its relentless subversive attacks on European political stability.

Earlier this month, the AP documented 59 specific instances that have been officially blamed on an extension of the Kremlin’s war efforts commonly dubbed ‘hybrid-war’ tactics. The events recorded range from the dissemination of propaganda and disinformation to cyberattacks and acts of sabotage, as well as murder plots and espionage.

Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Finland have all accused Russia and its ally Belarus of orchestrating migration emergencies at their borders.

The GEC came under fire from Trump’s “government efficiency” tsar Elon Musk in 2023, when the billionaire owner of social media platform X accused the unit of being the “worst offender in US government censorship (and) media manipulation” and called the agency a “threat to our democracy.”

Last June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC at the time, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.

The State Department had said that the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.

In a previous report highlighted by AFP, the GEC also warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a “sharp contraction” in freedom of speech around the world.